Exercise #15: Interaction Between 3 Levels

This is a design that relates to visual communication design because it is a logo design for a company. It clearly demonstrates all three levels of visual design communication: the representational level, the abstract level, and the symbolic level. In a whole, it's representational because we recognize it to be connected to the bank, Chase. So it is a symbol that represents a bank. It impacts the viewer by having them memorize a symbol instead of a name to represent a bank. It's an abstraction because its reduced to it's most basic form while also providing the viewer with an emotional response. It's a form of symbolism because it communicates to the viewer that you need a shared knowledge as society to be aware of what this symbol represents. The three levels relate to each other because basically its an abstract symbol that represents a bank.

Photo found at:
http://logodesignerblog.com/bank-logo-designs/

Exercise #14: Three Levels of Design

Representational:

This is an image of a dollar bill zoomed into one of the corners which contains what's known as "The All-Seeing Eye." Below the pyramid/eye symbol are the words, "Novus Ordo Seclorum," which can be translated as, "A new order of the ages." This is a form of representation in an item that we use on a daily basis. All Americans have seen it, but not everyone knows what it is or what it represents. To the viewer, it can represent many different things. Either that the Government watching over the people, or that nothing is hidden from the Government, or that the symbol of an eye is a universal energy. In this case, the representational form has transformed into a symbol of an eye.

Abstraction:
This an abstract image made up of lines, shapes, and color. To the viewer, it communicates abstraction because we are not visually seeing a photograph or still life painting. We see lines, color and shapes that make out a highway with cars on it with a city in the background. This is based on our knowledge as a society, not all people may see a city and a highway. It is an abstracted form because the viewer contributes an emotional response to the painting by adding their own imagination to what they seeing. The colors can impact your emotions by making you feel like your in the city, or that your stressed out, etc.

Symbolism:
This is an image of a symbolic representation of today's society. Many people have seen an evolution photo of how man developed from apes. This is a humorous photo of how man evolved from apes to man to pigs. The viewer can see how the evolution occurred and then developed into what most people view as men. Before the man turns into a pig, it shows a fat man holding a McDonald's bag and drink. This man is a symbol of how today's society is eating too much fast food and developing an unhealthy diet and also not exercising and becoming lazy.

Photos found at:
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Illuminati/dollar_ase.gif
http://averellgallery.com/images/2002_02_Abstraction8_page.jpg
http://joeoreilly.co.uk/blog/images/evolution.jpg

Exercise #11: Contrast

In this magazine layout, I believe the use of contrast adds to the success of the design. The contrast in color helps us see the strong juxtaposition between the two wolves. The contrast in scale of the wolves displays the importance of the article. The image and the article show contrast because they are competing in size and depth. The color used in the article complements the colors in the photo, creating harmony between the photo and story.


In this magazine cover, I believe the poor use of contrast adds to the failure of this design. The contrast in color and tone can be frustrating or too much for the viewer. The red used in the cover are all the same hue, so the contrast isn't strong enough for the viewer to differentiate what those objects are. The layout gets confusing because of all the bold colors especially from a distance pr if you squint your eyes. However the bottom does contrast with the top of the page because of the lightness and darkness. However if we were only to focus on the top, it doesn't seem to work well.






Photos found at:
http://www.xenu.net/archive/media/time910605.html
http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Animals/Archives/2005/Africas-Lone-Wolf.aspx

Exercise #10: Motion/Movement

This is a website known as Graphic Archaeology. The user can navigate through a lot of different graphic art. The website gives you an option to either navigate through the slides on the bottom, or the titles on the sidebar. It also has another form of navigation in the top. Which is a way to move to another categorized page, to either submit your work or learn more about who runs this site, etc. As you can see the website also has arrows on the bottom left where the site allows the viewer a type of linear navigation rather than clicking on each slide. It allows you to go through the slides one by one. The only problem with these type of navigation on this page is that there is a lot of different types and not all of them seem easy to use. Also for some people it may not be easy to see because there is so much going on in the website, some of the navigation might be hard to locate.
As a user of the iPhone, I have always found the navigation very easy to use and fast. In this image it shows some type of group chat going on. There is a bottom navigation bar that allows you to go back, forward, add another person to chat, or to open another website. There is also an open space for the user to type and a send button parallel to it. On the top, it also allows you to go back onto the main page. Almost anything you open on an iPhone will give you these options. I think why many people are fans on the iPhone is because the navigation is so clear, easy to use and it allows them to move through space without getting stuck or not knowing what to do.


Images found at:
http://www.otherthings.com/grafarc/
http://productblog.37signals.com/products/2008/01/launch-campfire.html

Week #9: Dimension/Depth/Space

The photo I have chosen is from the virtual world, Second Life. I chose this photo because it relates to graphic design as well as Veeder’s Depth/Size Perception notes. The image creates a graphic illusion of space to the viewer because it makes the computer screen look as if it has a three-dimensional dance party going on inside. This image relates to overlapping, relative height, and even linear perspective. The depth cue, overlap, occurs where the woman with blonde hair is standing in front of the man in white pants and the woman with a red shirt. From this perspective, the blonde woman seems closer to the screen because she is overlapping the two people behind her. The image relates to relative height because the woman with purple hair is below the horizon line which makes her seem closer to the screen, as opposed to the woman in the red shirt that is above or on the horizon line that seems further away. The linear perspective in this photo is a main component because the floor, ceiling, and walls have a lot to do with how we visually see this image. The picture appears to be in a 3-D space even though were viewing it from a 2-D surface. The linear perspective in this image indicates greater distance as the walls go back and it appears that the vanishing point would be behind the woman in the red shirt.

Photo found at:
http://www.rpgonline.com.br/games.asp?id=117

Week #8: Tone and Color

Tone operates in this picture by showing gradients on the bottom on top of the poster. There is a sense of light to dark pattern being depicted through the color scheme. The tone in the poster interacts with the visual design element of lines. On the top of the poster, there is a yellow gradient that shows presence of light while lines are beaming out of this light source which makes it feel like there is a sunrise in the distance. Color operates in this poster by context and theme. The theme of the poster is a Memorial Day celebration at UCLA with Jam Day and Reggae Day. The colors chosen for the event are festive, fun, and give the poster a Jamaican vibe. Color interacts with movement. Although there is no physical or digital movement occurring in the poster, there is a visual movement with the use of color. In the bottom green area of the poster, it shows two shades of green with curves. The curves and different colors makes the image have a sense of movement like waves in the ocean.


Photo found at: http://www.last.fm/festival/602507+The+22nd+Annual+JazzReggae+Festival

Exercise #7: Basic Elements

Tone

Tone is active in this website layout because it builds off the lines which occurred in the development process of this layout. There is a border around the page to focus the viewer in the center of the page. There is a light to dark pattern on the page. For example, the background is black while the centered page with content is white. The menu bar and company bar has a black gradient flowing through it to create tonal value. The tone is active in both the design process and the final result of this web page.

Color

Color is active in this website design because the color is dependent on the content on the page. Although there is not too many colors used, it is used in a way that simplifies the navigation of the site for the user. The colors used are two shades of red, gray, and white. The lighter red color is used for titles or the most important information. The darker red is used for the user to understand that they are clicking on and what they are reading. The white is the background, and the gray is used as a subcategory color for the less important aspects. Therefore, color performs as a hierarchy. Color is active in both the design process and the final result.

Line

Line is active in this website design because it is used on the sides of the page to create a linear border. There are also lines that surround the menu bar, as well as the sidebar on the left side of the page. The line performs the job of organizing the page for the user to better understand what’s going on. I think that the lines succeed in how they perform on this page because it’s clear what their purpose is. The line is both active in the design process, as well as the final result in this case.

Photos found at: http://shashi05.deviantart.com/art/Adidas-Website-Design-89966296 http://adrialdesigns.com/website-design/laurus-foundation-website-desig/ http://www.completewebpagedesign.com/webpagedesign.html

Exercise #6: Design Success and Failure

I chose to pick two examples that intersect with magazine design because I'm very interested in magazine layouts. In my opinion, I feel that black and white layout displays a good use of the syntactical guidelines. It succeeds because the positive and negative space creates a balance and a strong relationship between the active and passive. There is not too much white or black, they are both equally contributed. In the Lifestyle magazine, I feel it does not put in a good use of the syntactical guidelines. The basic composition of the layout is very cluttered, imbalanced, and has nothing that stands out. There's no stress or hierarchy in the text colors or size except for the title of the magazine. It's attempt to be sharpened is not fulfilled because it does not have your eye focus in the direction of the graphic because of the large text and colors on the opposing side.

Photos found at:
http://www.lostateminor.com/2008/06/19/canvas-magazine/
http://home.exetel.com.au/lindaweil/book_magazine_graphicdesign_page.htm

Exercise #5: Visual vs. Symbolic Language

-Balance of color
-Disappointment
-Shame
-Simplicity
-At the bottom
-Accuracy of emotion
-Fear
-Depth
-Boldness
-Failure
-Tragedy
-Frustration
-Stairs

The photo above is of an African-American man in a tan business suit with a red tie, white button-up shirt, blue socks, and brown shoes sitting at the bottom of about 30 steps. The stairs are a dark gray color, like cement. There are two rails seen to the left of the man, the rails are black with white pillars. He has one hand on his forehead and one resting on his knee. The look on his face is an emotion of disappointment, shame, or failure. If I were to describe this photo to a visually impaired individual, I would replace the man with a shameful face. The stairs could be replaced with the words failure on the bottom and success on the top with the man sitting on top of failure.

Photo found at http://crazetoday.com/i-news/nys-unemployment-and-the-world/

Exercise #4: Visual Thinking Research

For the visual thinking research, I chose to do my visual puzzles with my mom. At the end of each puzzle, we compared our results and each time they were different. The first puzzle was a cat made of triangles and the goal was to find how many triangles were in the image. My answer was 20, but my mom's answer was 13. The right answer was 20 triangles. When we compared strategies, it seemed as though my mom used "matching" and "categorizing" because she tended to see which triangles looked the same. She also said she was trying to complete the puzzle quick. Which in this case, she was using "perceptual speed" in the puzzle because she was quickly matching any obvious triangles she saw. On the other hand, I used the "finding" and "matching" technique. I took the "long way," I took my time to find every triangle I possible could.

The second visual puzzle we did was dots. With the dots, the viewer is suppose to figure out how many squares can be found by connecting the dots. My answer for this puzzle was 17, but my mom's answer was 19. The actual answer for this puzzle was 21. So we both did not find all the squares in the puzzle, but we did get close to the answer. When we compared strategies, it seems that both my mom and I used the "pattern completion" and "visual memory." We both visually completed the squares that weren't really there. From our visual memory, we tried to complete the puzzle but remembering the different sizes and angles that squares can be seen in.

Exercise #3: Feature Hierarchy

This image relates to my planned major, Visual Communication Design. It's a poster design for Rock Genesis. The image relates to feature channels because it has brightness in color, it also has shapes formed by letters and in the background. The shadows of the letter forms and layout of the overall poster, shows depth in the work. The eye movement of the viewer will probably first go towards the white letters that create a rock hand symbol. Its the largest object with the biggest typeface. Then the viewer's eyes will move towards the red background because of the bright color and images, last the viewer will read the black text on the bottom of the poster. The poster really catches your attention through all the feature channels. I would like to design for a company that produces posters such as this.

Photo found at http://www.hiddenpixels.com/designer-work/creative-graphic-design-for-advertisement/

Exercise #2: Top-Down Visual Processing

A first look at this image will have your attention driven towards the objects: the man and the UPS package. It’s obvious where our eye movement is directed towards. The main object has a low-level of features, it’s unclear, but the eye is fixated on the colors and patterns. Without being able to see all the features, we are still able to distinguish what the object is: a man. Then we take longer fixations on the clearness and detail on the UPS package. Our mind links together the objects and we begin to understand the message. Which relates to my area of study: Visual Communication Design/Graphic Design. This is a visual advertisement for UPS, the message as our eyes understand it, is that UPS is a fast delivery service.

Photo found at http://www.inewidea.com/2010/08/27/33271.html